Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c48.s7: § 9 The Battle of Lākheri
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c48.s7
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§ 9 The Battle of Lākheri
v4.c48.s7.1
Immediately after completing his reconnaissance with the help of a telescope, De Boigne decided to deliver his attack without waiting for the next day. Sending urgent messages to the camp to call up the rest of his battalions and artillery and to inform Gopāl Bhāu of this unexpected change of plan and to request the support of the Deccan cavalry, he formed his troops in line of battle. The country leading from Balwān to the Lākheri pass, after the first three miles is intersected by ravines and dry brooks and encumbered with jungle. Therefore, De Boigne had to deploy his full strength gradually as his battalions and guns came up in succession.
v4.c48.s7.2
He began the battle with the small force he had at first at hand, by sending forward three of his battalions and a body of Ruhela irregular infantry under Abdāl Khan, which was specially trained for storming hills, to carry the pass that led to the enemy's position. No adequate artillery support could be given to the attack for some time, and this small advance-guard was assailed by a storm of cannon-balls and rocket-fire from the defence trenches on the heights and thrown back with heavy loss. De Boigne then wisely led his men back to the shelter of the trees on the two sides, where the enemy's big "guns of position" could do them little harm. But Holkar's army by the prodigal and useless expenditure of its scanty supply of powder and shot at this initial stage, ran quite out of munitions when the real crisis of the battle came later and it could then make no reply to De Boigne's massed artillery.
v4.c48.s7.3
The enforced halt among the woods enabled the rest of De Boigne's infantry and guns to come up. He deployed his column and formed his line of battle, unlimbered his guns, and opened fire upon the enemy with a crushing superiority.* Meantime the sound of the enemy's opening artillery had carried the news of the action to the Maratha generals in the camp before De Boigne's couriers, and Gopāl Bhāu had sent Lakhwā Dādā up with Sindhia's Household cavalry (Pāgā) to reinforce the vanguard. The infantry battalions were thus heartened by the sight of strong cavalry support behind them on the left, which guarded them against any attack from the rear.
v4.c48.s7.4
Thus clearing the pass, De Boigne issued from it into the more open ground beyond, which was however too much cut up by ravines and covered with trees and jungle to allow regular manœuvring or free-firing. But just then an unforeseen accident threatened disaster to his force: "A bullet hitting the iron side of an open munition waggon caused a spark to flash, which exploded that waggon and the fire spreading, twelve other tumbrils blew up at the same time, while ten or twelve guns were thrown out of their carriages and rendered unserviceable. The confusion spread to the infantry, and the enemy horse, advanced with rapidity to profit by the disorder. De Boigne, who saw the storm coming, immediately retired his men some yards into the forest," and kept them standing ready to meet the attack. As the Holkarian cavalry came out of their back line into the open plain before them, they were subjected to a withering fire of 6,000 muskets firing by platoons and 80 guns ranged close ahead in a semi-circle, and fell into disorder after losing many men and horses for nothing.
v4.c48.s7.5
Just as the enemy horse stopped and hesitated, De Boigne launched his select cavalry on them. This body of only three hundred troopers, mounted on superb horses and accoutred in the sumptuous style of the famous Bengal Cavalry of the British East India Company's army, charged with the compactness and force of a bullet. Their green coats and red turbans were at first lost to view in the wavy ocean of ten thousand parti-coloured jackets and tight twisted orange pugrees of the Deccani horse. The blow was struck at the psychological moment. At the impact of disciplined valour, Holkar’s rabble on horseback began to scatter like chaff before the wind. Emboldened by this sight, the entire Sindhian cavalry, under Jivā Dādā and Gopāl Bhāu, fell upon the shaken Holkarians and turned their retreat into a hopeless rout, chasing them out of sight from the battle-field.
v4.c48.s7.6
∗ Holkar's guns were of heavier calibre, but De Boigne's were double in number and equal in range, and could be fired with greater quickness and accuracy by his European gunlayers.
v4.c48.s7.7
By this time it was well past noon. Holkar’s troops who had been up and in arms since day-break and working for eight hours under the burning sun of June in Rajputana, were at last overcome by thirst. Worn out with toil, raked by De Boigne’s guns to which they were no longer able to reply, and dying of thirst with no hope of water supply, the Holkarian army now broke up rapidly. As their Rajah’s family chronicler admits, “Our troops began to cry out for water. In Sindhia’s campoo camels continued to bring skins full of water, but on our side there was no water. Therefore, the Gosāins and Bairāgis ran away. Munitions ran short in our five [four] battalions. . . Even the Maratha horse took to flight.”
v4.c48.s7.8
Where was Malhar Holkar II at this time? As his father’s cavalry left the lost field and issued out of the pass, they found Malhar lying in the water of a tank by the roadside quite senseless. The pot-valiant hero was cooling his wine-flushed head after ruining his family prestige and the lives of hundreds of brave men. As the *Holkar Kaifiyat* comments on it: “He in reliance on whom they had made the reversal of the treaty, was in such a condition!”
v4.c48.s7.9
With the flight of the Gosāins and Bairāgis and of the Pindharis and Marātha horse behind them,* the entire Centre and Right wing of Holkar’s army disappeared. The Deccanis vanished like smoke, leaving the fight to be continued by the Hindustanis on both sides. Holkar’s left wing still stood firmly. It was now a duel between two trained infantry forces, each under European leadership.
v4.c48.s7.10
∗ One MS. of *Holkaranchi Kaifiyat* gives the reading that Bāpu Holkar signalled with his scarf to Dudrenec to retire, and then the army broke up. The other MSS. omit this version; but it is quite credible; Bāpu as a cool-headed and experienced General must have
v4.c48.s7.11
De Boigne called upon Chevalier Dudrenec to surrender, but the call was gallantly refused and a fight to the finish ensued. Dudrenec, by a prompt tactical move pivoting on his right and marching *en echelon*, had extended his line from the left, into the gap created by the vanishing of Holkar’s centre, and though absolutely denuded of cavalry support, he tried to guard his flanks with fire. But his numbers were hopelessly weak, 1,600 bayonets against 6,000 and his guns had been rendered useless by the exhaustion of powder, and there was no reserve or support within sight. Left utterly alone in the field, and hemmed in front by De Boigne’s ten battalions and on the two flanks and rear by Gopāl Bhāu’s returned cavalry, with sixty light brass guns firing on them at point-blank range, Holkar’s northern sepoys fought on till they were almost all annihilated. There was no escape possible, and none was sought. All their European officers were either killed or wounded; Dudrenec himself escaped death by falling into a heap of the slain.
v4.c48.s7.12
Holkar’s defeat was complete and the battle decided the Sindhia-Holkar rivalry for domination over Hindustan.
v4.c48.s7.13
The loss on Holkar’s side was very heavy. Dudrenec, in an interview with Ahalyā Bāi on 27th August, reported that 800 to 900 men had fallen on his side; this evidently refers to his four battalions, which would mean more than 50 per cent fatal casualties. The deaths among the Maratha horse have not been estimated anywhere, and we are only told, in the accounts that reached Punā, of “great destruction” having been wrought among them. But they took to flight so quickly that more of them died of thirst and fatigue
v4.c48.s7.14
found out that the day was lost and he rightly tried to save his army for fighting another day.
v4.c48.s7.15
on the way than those that fell on the field, chiefly as victims of De Boigne's fire. Sindhia's loss was even slighter than at Mertā. The fugitives suffered unspeakable hardship from lack of water on the route for some days after leaving Lākheri. (MD. ii. 241. Gulgulé D. Holkar Kaif. 64.)
v4.c48.s7.16
From the hard-won field, Gopāl Bhāu marched and occupied Holkar's abandoned camp near Lākheri city. The spoils of victory included 38 pieces of cannon, ten cart-loads of rockets, 200 horses, 50 camels, three palkis, four camels laden with treasure, besides all the tents and baggage. (Kalá Akh.)